Hot Tips for Galvanised Cappings

Tip No. 1

For cleaning the galvanised bits on your landy, the cappings, windscreen surround and bumpers, try using a fine Scotchbrite pad. It looks like a kitchen scourer and available from the usual place like Bodgit & Quick or Gnomebase.

Just give the galvy a light skim with the pad and voila, like new. Don't rub too vigorously or you'll get back to steel in no time. Not an everyday cleaning method but for the occasional spruce up works wonders. An alternative to painting Hammerite silver every year.

Tip No. 2

Heres a tip to add to your tech info, during the cosmetic restoration of my swb series 2, I'd found that with the nice shiny new Bronze green paint, the galv cappings spoiled the hard work put in on the bodywork, the cost & work involved in removing & re-fitting these, using genuine rivets is too much aggro, along with the cost of shot-blasting & hot dip galvanising, or buying new. I remembered a product i used some years ago when i had a steel fabrication business. This is an aerosol paint specially designed for the repair of damaged galvanised surfaces, due to welding, grinding, or any of the other, sometimes necessary post galvanising work required.

You do not need to etch prime the surface, just lightly abrade it. In my case over it's previous owners it had been painted with ordinary silver paint, which was flaking off, the galv surface was rusted lightly in places, mainly due to wear from hands & the tilt abrading it over the years. I used a wire twist knot brush fitted into a 4" Grinder & stripped off the old paint & at the same time it abraded the surface. Wipe it clean with thinners or Meths, NOT WHITE SPIRIT !!, & spray away. This paint has Zinc particles in it & over spray goes a fair way, so don't do it in the kitchen !!, & WEAR A MASK. If you spray the cappings in place on the vehicle, mask the areas not to be painted up well, for a good distance away, believe me. One coat is enough, but i gave it a light dust coat then another when the first was dry, no rubbing down between coats.

The finished colour is almost identical to that of new hot dip galvanising, has a slightly rough surface, compared to Smoothrite, but after a few weeks in the weather it looks bloody good, you'd have to be on top of it to notice its not Galv, it dulls off just like galv, but the benefit of this paint is that it is designed for this application & adheres to the old galv surface without flaking off in the first rain, its pretty tough as well, & if you do scratch it just spray it over again, ive done all my galv with it & I'm well pleased with it.


PRODUCT DETAILS

Its made by RUST-OLEUM, product code 2117, The tin says FAST DRY HARD HAT industrial coatings, GALVA, ZINC- ALU, bright galvanizing, comes in 500 ml tin, iused two tins to do all galv on my Landy, inc the windscreen inside & out, cost about £ 8.00 ish per tin, depending on where you buy it i guess, i bought mine from Lawsons in Southampton, a tool & fastener shop, but i've also seen it in Vanguard Fixings if you have one near you, it seems they are the type of places that do it, maybe Buck & Hickman or like that may stock it. Its an American product made under licence in the Netherlands, here's the tel no on the can, maybe someone can speak English there & tell you a stockist near you, Tel +31(0)165 593636 Fax +31(0)165 593600

Give it a go, but shake the tin really well and continue to do so in between sprays, i let mine stand in warm water for 15 mins before shaking to make it a little more fluid, & mix better.

Regards, Gary Bull